04/25/08
Members of faculty senate joined in Owen’s Audio-Visual Room Tuesday for a special session of the usual once-a-month meetings.
Baker University President Pat Long began the meeting by asking for an endorsement of five different names that would be receiving awards, plaques or medallions at the upcoming graduation ceremonies.
The names were endorsed and the senate moved forward to discuss a total of nine motions left as unfinished business from the April 1 meeting. In order for any of the motions to be passed a two-thirds majority vote would have to take place, rather than a simple majority. Votes were cast on a secret ballot.
The first two motions involved changes in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty Constitution.
The second one passed without any debate and made an amendment that moved the review of sabbatical applications from the Faculty Development and Evaluation Committee responsibilities to the Faculty Growth and Enrichment Committee.
The first of the two motions, however, was discussed with some strong feelings on the issue.
The motion called that the constitution remove the requirement that the Chair of the FDEC attend the meeting of the Education Committee of the Board of Trustees when it considers promotion and tenure matters.
Many faculty members expressed their concerns during the meeting.
“I just don’t like removing the option,” Gary Giachino, professor of chemistry, said. “You would just like to have your voice heard in situations that are being debated.”
The motion ultimately failed with 10 yes votes and seven no votes.
The next seven motions were concerning the faculty handbook, and all but one passed. The one that failed was the other hot topic that took up a majority of the discussion.
The motion called for the word “generally” to be removed from Page 2 of the faculty handbook concerning the terms of employment for a professor. It currently states: “Generally, a minimum of 10 years of full-time teaching experience is required prior to consideration for the rank of professor.”
Some members had concerns about removing the word “generally.”
“The discussion was about whether or not we should have as a hard-and-fast rule the notion that people who are promoted (or apply for promotion) to full professor should have had 10 years experience as a faculty member at a university,” Marc Carter, associate professor of psychology, said. “Some feel that other experience or other extenuating circumstances might warrant promoting someone before they’ve had those 10 years as a faculty member; I disagreed.”
Carter felt that a full professorship said something about “experience and expertise,” while others thought there might be good reasons for promoting someone early.
Sophomore Rose Garrison said she prefers going by a case-by-case basis in everything in life, and she didn’t think this should be different.
“There’s more to being a professor than just experience, and we’ve all come across that,” Garrison said.
The motion failed with nine yes votes and eight no votes.
Faculty senate will hold its next meeting May 6.